The application of reception aesthetics in translation studies can be discussed from three concepts:ho-rizon of expectations, the response-inviting structure of the text and the implied reader. Through analysis of these three concepts, it is found that reception aesthetics does not only mean focusing on the reception of readers and advocating adaptation strategy to suit the existing horizon of expectations of them but the creative nature of readers makes it possible for a translation to be carried out in the way of inverse translation. Therefore, reception aesthet-ics can not only serve as the theoretical foundation for direct translation, which is a self-evident traditional no-tion, but also provide justification for inverse translation. Analysis of the translations of The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City proves that translation directionality does not cause marked differences in translations in terms of language and style. The reception of translations is influenced by social, political and other complex fac-tors and differed reception of translations should not be simply attributed to translation directionality.%“期待视野”“文本的召唤结构”“隐含读者”是接受美学应用于翻译研究领域的主要概念。由这三个概念的探讨可以发现，接受美学并非只研究读者的接受，提倡为顺应读者当前的期待视野采取归化策略；它也视读者为有创造力的主体，而并不否认逆向翻译的合理性。因此，接受美学不仅可以作为直接翻译的理论依据，也可以作为逆向翻译的理论支撑。在《金锁记》和《倾城之恋》的英译本中，翻译的方向并没有导致译文在语言和风格上的显著差异，译文的接受度还受到社会、政治等诸多因素的影响，不可仅归咎于翻译的方向问题。
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